Maximum Ride 6 REDONE
by kreader
Summary: A re-do of my original Maximum Ride 6. Fax. Eggy. READ, RATE, AND REVIEW, PLZ! Thanks! If you want, read the original and tell me if you think it's better! Thanks.
1. Intro

_I read over the corny script. __Again. "Fang, I'm not doing this. It's stupid," I said. Fang and I were walking down a beach in Florida, holding hands._

_"C'mon. You'll like rehearsals," Fang pushed. In the script, I was supposed to kiss him. It was an ad to prevent global warming, and I don't know how the writers incoperated _kissing_ with _global warming_._

_"Fang. No. This isn't like you. You'd want to keep our love private!" I complained. And that wasn't like me, because I don't complain._

--

"Max! Wake up!" groaned Gazzy. Iggy and Gazzy were poking and tapping me. Angel probably knew I was awake, but I was planning to stay in bed as long as I could.

"I'll get her," Fang said. Angel giggled, reading his mind. I heard Fang's quiet footsteps. He leaned down and kissed me, lifting me to my feet. Nudge and Angel giggled uncontrollably, holding Total who whined. Probably because he missed Akila, and seeing love hurt. Gazzy moaned and dragged Iggy into the kitchen.

He stopped kissing me and asked, "Awake?" I moaned and leaned against his shoulder. Fang's arms wrapped around my waist and rocked me back and forth soothingly. I would've fallen asleep again, but I had my leader duties to attend. I moaned again and went to the bathroom to have a hot shower.

When I came out, feeling refreshed and clean, I saw food on the table and rushed to it. We'd been staying at a hotel in Hawaii for about three weeks, after my mum and Ella had left to go back to their home, I would say _our _home, but I really can't say I have a home. Wherever my flock is, I guess.

"Okay, gang. Let's pack up," I said when we had all finished stuffing our faces. We packed our few belongings, and headed out the door. It was around noon, so we took off in the park, to have a lesser chance of people seeing our wings. Flying to where my mom lived would take about 4 or 5 hours, no breaks. But, with a six-(or seven)-year-old, and an 8-year-old, you would probably want to stop.

"Where are we going?" Nudge asked, tying her shoes.

"We're going to go see my mom," I answered, slinging a pack onto my shoulder.

"Oh, I hope she has that delicious coffee again!" Total said, jumping into my arms. We checked out of the hotel and took off, flying gracefully over the ocean.


	2. Chapter 1

We'd stopped for a bit, somewhere in California, we'd been flying for 2 or more hours, and Nudge kept complaining about how hungry she was. "Hey, Total, why didn't you fly here? Your wings are getting bigger. I bet you could," I asked Total. He kept squirming around on the flight here, which really bugged me. He hid his wings so well onder his little ungroomed black coat, I forgot half the time he had wings.

"Fine," he grumbled.

We flew for two and a half hours longer, then I saw my mom's little house. We landed smoothly, and Nudge got a thrill out of ringing the doorbell about a million times. "Max! Fang! Iggy! Total! Nudge! Gazzy! Angel!" Ella squealed, remembering not to say Total's name last. We hugged and said how much we missed eachother. I used to hate mushy emotion, but since I've found my mom and realized I love Fang, I don't mind it so much.

"Where's Mom?" I asked Ella as we walked into the kitchen.

"Grocery shopping," Ella said. "Hey, Max? Can I talk to you. Privately," she dragged me into her room. "I kinda want to ask Iggy out," she asked shyly. I was shocked. It'd be great to have somebody to really love, like I love Fang, but I couldn't think of what to say at the moment.

"Um," I began, "I don't know. Ask him out," I suggested, still shocked.

"How?!" Ella moaned, flopping onto her bed.

"Uh, I don't know. I can barely ask Fang out," I said. She nodded. I hadn't seen her since Hawaii, but I made phone calls often. We talked about girl stuff. Shoes, boys (Fang), the latest fashions, etc. She look really nervous, so I tried to support her- even though I'm really bad at it. "He likes you, too. Just ask him!"

"Oh, I don't know. What would I wear? How long are you staying? How much time do have to prepare? Where would we go?" She was nearly hyperventalating now, so I sat beside her, rubbing her back.

"Just go to some restaurant- he'd really like a place with colours! So he could feel 'em and stuff. And get him something, like... a Rubik's cube! He'd love that! But give it to him after the date, so he's not playing with it the whole time," I said, trying to act excited excited. Inside I was laughing, not to be mean or anything, but _Iggy? On a date? _Ha!

"Sure! Yes! Can you bring him over? Or maybe I should ask him later. Yeah, later would be better," Ella said. "Oh! And, I can wear my polka dotted shirt! And then, when he puts his arm around me, he'll feel polka dots!" she said, her eyes moving into another world.

"Sounds good," I said, smiling. I walked back to the kitchen, where my mom had arrived. She was baking cookies-- my favourite thing in the whole world, and the smell was so good I nearly fainted.

"Mom!" I shouted, running towards her.

"Honey!" she shouted back, "oh, Max! I missed you so much!" She hugged and kissed me for the next five minutes and then she went back to baking the cookies. The rest of the flock was watching a documentary on birds on TV. I sat next to Fang, his arm wrapped around my waist. When the documentary finished, so were the cookies. We sat down at the table and chose a cookie. Ella had come out of Dreamland, so she joined us.

"Iggy, Max, Fang, I got you something, because you're the oldest," she said, walking to the storage room and pulling out three boxes. They were wrapped in black-and-white wrapping paper, but there was one that was polka dotted, probably Iggy's. She handed one to each of us, and Iggy was overjoyed when he touched the wrapping paper. We tore it open, to reveal a cell phone box. Fang and I smiled, and Iggy was still opening it carefully, so he wouldn't rip the wrapping paper.

"It's a cell phone, Iggy," Nudge said in awe when Iggy couldn't make out what it was. "I want one! I want one!" Nudge squealed. Nudge had always begged Jeb to get a cell phone back in the cave, when she was, like, six.

We turned them on and played around a bit. Gazzy helped Iggy with things like reading the screen. Iggy, my mom's cell, Mom's house, and Fang's number were all ready added to the contact list. When dinner came, we ate greedily, since we were starving. We ate more cookies, then the younger kids went to bed. Iggy, Ella, Fang, and I sat on the couch, chatting about whatever.

"Hey, um, Iggy," Ella said, going all shy again, "do you wanna, like, um, go out, um, tomorrow for lunch or something?"

Iggy's face lit up. "Yeah! Sure," he said. They talked about where they wanted to go for dinner for half an hour, and then we decided to go to bed.

Before I shut the door of Ella's room, Fang kissed me goodnight and asked, "do you want to go out for a walk tomorrow?"

"Sure," I replied. We'd barely had any alone time, so I was eager to get some.


	3. Chapter 2

The next day, we had waffles, played with our phones some more and clicked on the TV. Boring shows were on- the news, Dora the Explorer, and so on.

"Max, do you want to go out now?" Fang asked from behind me.

"Yeah, um, yeah," I said, making sure I had my cell in pocket. "Bye, Mom, I'll be back soon. Make sure they don't get out," I said, walking out the door.

When we left, Fang held my hand. We walked along a path that went through the forest. Everything seemed so quiet. So peaceful, so... Romantic. We kept walking until we came to a large rock. Fang leaned against it, and opened his arms for me to come in. I leaned in and kissed him. His kisses were so dang _amazing, _so, well, I don't know. No words can explain it. He pulled away from my mouth and said very quietly, "I love you."

"I love you, too," I whispered back.

"So. What's next?" Fang asked.

"I don't know. Where to start? I'm... confused. We've done so much, and..." I leaned against Fang's shoulder.

_You still haven't done enough. _Oh. Great. The Voice. It hadn't been inside my head for a while, and I'd nearly forgotten about it.

I heard someone's breath coming from behind the rock. "Hello?" I hissed. Nothing. Then, I realized it was Angel. The one who _always _disobeys rules."Angel, get out from behind that rock right now," I said, staying stern. She came out from the boulder. "Angel, why are you here?" I growled. Before she could answer, I whipped our my cell phone and dialed my mom's number.

"Hey, mom," I said angrily. "Is Angel with you?" I asked.

"Uh, yes, she is, actually," she said, perplexed. I was confused, too.

"I'll bring over the Angel we have here. Spying on us. You keep an eye on the Angel you have,' I said, hanging up. I didn't like being rude to my mom, but I was so mad at Angel for spying on us. "Angel, we need to talk." I looked over and nodded at Fang.

"So now you can duplicate yourself?" I hissed.

"Yeah. It's pretty cool. I imagine where I want to be, and then I go there. And another me replaces me," she said innocently.

I rolled my eyes and said, "never. Ever. Do that again."

She nodded. "Okay," I confirmed.

Fang looked at Angel and then me. He looked at Angel again and said, "What do you think you're doing?" Angel looked at her feet. "Why do you thing you can just walk around and do whatever you want, do whatever you want to people? It's not right!"

Fang looked at me to continue, so I knelt down to Angel's level. "He's right. Why do you keep doing that? It's not safe. It's not smart. And, it shows you do not respect everybody else around you. Especially those older than you." I stared at her, and she nodded.

"I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't know it bugged you," she said looking up innocently. Which, if you knew Angel meant she wasn't done with mischievousness.

"Angel, we're being serious. If you do something else we ask you not to do, or something dangerous or stupid or mean, there will be consequences," Fang said, his voice rising slightly. Angel nodded. That was too... easy, especially for Angel. Well, we'll see. We walked back to my mom's place, where everyone was waiting.

"Do you want to go get some ice cream, Max?" Fang asked, taking my hand.

"Sure," I replied. Hopefully we'd be able to get some alone time then.


	4. Chapter 3

Surprisingly, he didn't take me to an ice cream shop, but a beach. We had to fly there, since it was a few kilometers away, and walking would just waste time. We still held hands, I flew over him, reaching down, and he reached up. We landed gracefully, as always. Fang's arm was now wrapped around my waist.

I couldn't believe Angel! Lately she'd been disobeying everyone, especially me. "Max?" Fang asked.

"Uh, yes? Yeah?" I said.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked, noticing I wasn't really paying attention.

"Oh, it's just that Angel isn't exactly listening to everyone," I sighed.

"Yeah. That needs to stop," he agreed. "But tight now, it's about you and me."

I nodded in agreement and we continued to walk down the beach. We stopped and watched the ocean. It may have not been the prettiest sight, the water wasn't as blue as Hawaii, but Fang made everything right for me. I turned to him from watching the ocean and kissed him. He kissed me back. This kiss seemed different from when we at the rock in the forrest. It seemed more... Happy. Like every second I was with him, he got happier. That's how it felt for me. He left my lips and said, "let's go back. You've got to help Ella with what she's wearing for her date tonight."

I shook my head. "I want to stay here!"

Fang smiled at me. "Of course."

I kissed him again, and he put his hand behind my head. _Oh, God. I love you, Fang._ _I_ _wish this day would never end__! _I thought.

Later, I pulled back and asked, "what time is it?"

Fang looked at his watch. "One." We'd been kissing for ten minutes! Teenagers are so strange. I grabbed his hand and started to run for a fast takeoff.

"We were supposed to be home at twelve forty five!" I shouted while we were flying. I cursed under my breath.

We landed at 1:10. I knocked on the door urgently. My Mom opened it. "Did they leave yet?" I asked.

"No. They were--" I didn't let my Mom finish her sentence. I rushed to Ella's room. She was pacing back and forth.

"Hey," I said.

She jumped and frowned at me. "I can't believe how late you are!" she hissed. "I don't know what bottoms go with my polka dotted top!" She dragged me to her wardrobe and threw three skirts and a pair of jeans on her bed.

"Just wear jeans," I said. She half sighed, have growled at me.

"This is a big thing for me!" she yelled.

"I'm sorry. We lost track of time, and--"

"It's okay. I'm just really nervous." She sighed and changed into the jeans and polka dotted shirt.

"Ready," she said, excited.

She walked past me. I flopped onto her bed. This was a good time to think. Why was Angel not listening to people? Who is going to try to kill us next? When would somebody try to kill us next? I didn't know how to answer any of those questions.

"Bye!" Ella and Iggy called as they left. Well, I hoped they had a good time.


	5. Chapter 4

Ella was really nervous about her first date, so was Iggy. They walked out the door, too nervous to hold hands. He heard her footsteps and followed them down to a sidewalk. They walked down to a small breakfast place. "Hi, can I have a table for two?" Ella asked the man at the podium. He led them to a table near the window.  
They sat down quietly. Ella read the menu to Iggy. "There's a pancake platter. It's got two sausages, an egg, and three big pancakes."

"I'll have two of those," Iggy decided.

"Okay, I'll have the French toast," Ella said. She really didn't know what to talk about. They ordered and sat in an awkward silence, waiting for their food to come.

"What's your favourite colour?" Ella asked suddenly. Iggy looked up thoughtfully, scratching his chin.

"I don't know. I like every colour," he said. Ella sighed, thinking of what to say next.

"What colour do you like touching the most? Like, what object?" She asked.

Iggy sat thoughtfully again. "I like touching TVs, 'cause they have all those different colours that change a lot," he said.

Ella nodded, even though he couldn't see. "I like touching soft stuff," Ella said. She leaned over the table and touched his hair. "Soft."

Iggy blushed. He really liked Ella, and he was afraid of embarrassing himself.

The food arrived. "This food sucks!" Ella complained. She though it tasted like some sort of seewead or something.

"It's fine," Iggy disagreed. "Well. I shouldn't say that. I like anything." He smiled. His smile melted Ella's heart.

"How about we just walk back to your place," Iggy composed.

"Uh, yeah. Can we take a bit of a detour?" Ella asked.

Iggy nodded and they got up from the table. They paid the bill and left.

Ella took Iggy down a sideroad. She took his hand. Iggy's face turned bright red.

Ella found more colourful subjects to talk about. A few feet from the house, Ella stopped. She took Iggy's other hand and said, "stay still."

She leaned in slowly, but Iggy suddenly pulled away. "Sorry! Sorry!" he apologised. "I hear something over there!" He pointed to the west.

Ella ran into the house and got the rest of the flock. They got into fighting positions. "Ella! Mom! Stay inside! Somewhere with no windows!" Max shouted.

They obeyed. This seemed like it was going to be a bad fight.


	6. Chapter 5

"Iggy! Two o'clock!" I shouted. I heard a quiet buzzing noise. From inside, you could't hear a thing. A large black object buzzed forward quickly. It had heavy and shiny armour. Its eyes glowed red, blood red. An M242 Bushmaster was weilded to his arm. Uh-oh.

Four more smaller black figures approached. They came closer and closer and closer. "Nudge! Fang! Fight in the air!" I shouted. Nudge, Fang, and I flew towards the large robots. I looked back. Of course.

Fang had already started beating up one of the guys. These weren't M-Geeks. Way more armed and intellegent. "Nothing's happening!" Fang shouted. I looked over to the 'bot he was bustin'. No dents, no nothing.

I was lost in the way he fought for a second. So gracefully. _Ow! _Something punched me in the ribs. I gasped and went back to fighting. Three of the 'bots were on the ground. Gazzy shouted orders to Iggy, because every time her tried to hit it, the robot would move away just in time. I'd found one weak spot: well, it was barely a week spot, it only left a dent; you just had to punch it really hard where a human-that was seriously oversized- would have its gut.

"Uh, guys! Take cover! Duck!" Gazzy shouted to those in the air. We shot downwards, into the canopy. We ran fast into the heart of the forrest, spliting up. _Bam! Pow! _Iggy and Gazzy's bomb exploded with bright lights and loud noises. Iggy's chear was heard from a kilometer away. I raced back to the house.

My mom and Ella smiled grimly at us. They hugged us all. "Where's Fang?" my Mom asked when she had hugged all of us. I looked around.

"I'll go look in the forest," I said.

"One of me'll go, too," Angel said.

I nodded. "He was running that way," I said, pointing to the North. The only reason I let Angel come, or _one _of Angel come, was because she wouldn't exactly be a liability, but might help by reading his mind, him trying to tell us where he is or something.

The flock split up.

We returned back to the house at sevenish. We had searched forever. Around three hours. The fight had only lasted around fifteen minutes. The flock was tired and battered up by the end of it.

I flopped into a seat at the table. This completely sucked. I dropped my head in my hands.

"What are we going to name those guys?" Angel asked, patting my back.

"I don't know, sweetie. Something horrible. Did you pick anything up from them?" I asked.

"Yeah. They don't want to kill us, but if they don't, they'll be killed. And they don't really actualy make movements themselves. Somebody controlls them," She explained.

Interesting. "Max?" Nudge asked. "I know Fang will be back. Don't worry. We'll find a way to rescue him."

Yeah. Let's hope.


	7. Chapter 6

That night, I stood in front of Ella's door, waiting for Fang to come kiss me godd night. _Oh, right. He's gone. _I thought sadly. I sighed and dragged my self over to my bed, accross from Ella's. Fang usually slept on the floor in the living room, Nudge had to sleep on the floor in Ella's room, since she kicked a lot, and Gazzy shared the spare room bed with Angel. Iggy just fell asleep wherever.

Total hopped up and sat at the end of my bed. "Love is a roller coaster, but I think yours is the scariest one of all," he said, lying down.

"You bet," I agreed. "When are you going to see Akila next?"

"I was thinking of flying over to her," he said, whining softly.

"Where is she?"

"Somewhere." He rolled onto his belly. "You know, I think..." He fell a sleep in mid-sentence. I snorted and closed my eyes, falling asleep quickly.

--

_Fang? Fang! What happened to him?! He looks horrible!_

_"Fang?" I asked weakly._

_"Max?" He croaked._

_His face was red from blood, and his shirt was torn. His eyes closed, and his head dropped. He was dead!_

_"No! Fang, Fang, Fang! No!" I sobbed._

--

I woke up screaming at the top of my lungs. Total jumped and squealed. Ella moaned and rolled over. Nudge kicked more, then shot up and looked around.

"Max? Max? What happened? Are you okay?" Nudge asked, scared.

"Bad, bad, bad dream," I said. "We've gotta find Fang! They'll kill him!"

And I burst in to tears. They were going to kill him. Unless we save him first. God, what've I gotten my self into?


	8. Chapter 7

Fang was tied up to a fence with large chain he couldn't get out of. Every time he struggled, the fence electrocuted him violently. "Max? Max? Come," he breathed. A man with a bloody nose walked over to him.

"You might want to get out of here," he said grimly. "The worst is yet to come."

"Wow. What great new. Looks like yo had fun, yourself," Fang muttered with the energy he had. Fang knew Max would come save him. The man was shoved by a tall, muscly woman with red hair. It was Brigid! She had the same face- but she had been genetically enhanced. "Brigid Dwyer?" Fang breathed slowly.

"What?" she growled. She saw Fang. "Fang? Get out of here!" she whispered.

Fang looked at her in disbelief. "Right," she said. She took out a pair of extremely sharp-looking scissors and snapped through the chains.

Pain shot through Fang's body-- the chains had been rigged so that if somebody tried to cut them, they would electrocute him. He screamed, draining the rest of his energy. He struggled to stay awake. Brigid tried to pull him to his feet, but he couldn't think straight and collapsed again onto the fence, which hurt more than any pain Fang had ever experienced. His wings felt warm with blood, and he tried not to think about how much damage it would cause. For all he knew, it would leave scars.

Brigid pulled him up, but he was out cold. She dragged him to the closest closet and lay him down. A bucket of dirty mop water would do for Brigid- this was and emergency. She splashed it over Fangs face. Nothing. Fang's breathing slowed, then sped up, then, he hit the floor like he was having a bad nightmare. His eyes flickered open. "Come on- I have to get you to a hospital. No-- that wouldn't work. Uh," Brigid though for a few seconds. "I'll just go sneak some medical stuff."

She left the room for a few minutes, then came back. She had hurried, so she only got some water, bandages, and anti-burn cream she's found behind the other drugs. She rubbed the lotion on Fang's wings and back and wrapped them up with the bandage, pouring water into his mouth every now and then. "You're leaving tomorrow. Rest for now. No one ever comes in here," Brigid told him. She left the room to finish her job.

Fang felt better, but he still felt like crap. Before, it felt like an electric elehpant rolled on him a thousand times. And missed Max. She was going to come. He just needed to wait.

He felt himself slowly dying. His heart was about the pace of a normal humans now, and he had lost so much blood, he felt dizzy-- even when he was sitting down.


	9. Chapter 8

I was still crying as I got dressed. This was completely hopeless. "It's not hopeless, Max," Angel said from behind me, making me jump. "You didn't give up when the whitecoats took me." Oh, yeah. That seamed like a lifetime ago.

"I could go get him," Angel said thoughtfully.

"How?" I asked. Oh, yeah. "You can, like, transport there, huh? But you don't even know where he is."

"I didn't know where you were, either," she said innocently. "I just imagined I was with you."

I shrugged. "Okay. I guess we could give is a try."

Hopefully this worked. I told everybody the plan. "Angel!" Total sobbed when he heard she was going. "If you go, nobody will be here to... to... to let me vent to."

Angel explained that she would still be there, just with Fang, too. "And you can vent to Max," she said, smiling at me.

"Iggy? Gazzy? What kind of a bomb did you make _now?" _I asked them, raising my eyebrow.

"None, actually," Iggy said, smiling guiltily. Yeah, right.

My phone began to vibrate- a text message. I looked at the screen. It was from Fang! I read it slowly.

_Max come some evil place soon please love you_

I began to cry again. This sucked. "Angel," I said between sobs. "Go. Now. And whatever you do, don't get caugh."

"Yeah. No pressure," Iggy muttered sarcastically.

Angel nodded and closed her eyes in concentration. Then she opened her eyes- wide. She walked around like she was there. I get it- whatever she did there, she did here. "It's okay, Fang," she said, kneeling.

_Come on, come on. _I thought, crossing my fingers and praying quietly. If this didn't work-- if Angel got caught-- then we were toast. And Fang would die


	10. Chapter 9

Angel lifted Fang slowly. All he could think was, _It's the end. It's all over. I'm gonna die. And never see Max again.  
_

Angel disagreed. "Fang! Stop thinking that! If you ever want to see Max again, then you're gonna want to think differently!"

She knew Max could hear what saying, and she would not approve of Fang giving up, even though she seemed to be giving up, too. She helped him walk down a long hallway, with a tall, black door at the end. They slowly approached it.

"Dang! You need a code," Angel said, looking at Fang sadly. She typed 123 and 135. They didn't work.

"Try... 370," Fang whispered, squinting slightly.

Angel shrugged and hit the buttons. The door popped open. "Good. How'd you know?" Angel asked. Fang shrugged. She crept out the door, with Fang leaning against her. Then she flipped out Fang's phone. "Does this thing have a GPS?" she asked. Fang nodded. She typed in Dr. Martinez's address, and it showed her a path. Angel felt tugging on something... her soul? She tried to pull herself away from it, but it tugged harder, and harder, and harder until she couldn't pull away any longer. She let the force take her, fealingweak, but she kept the grip on Fang's shirt.

"Angel?" someone Max's voice said. Maybe... Maybe it _was _Max!

"Max?" Angel asked, opening her eyes slowly. Max was waiting in front of her, her eyes worried. Angel sat up. "Fang? Fang?" she asked.

"Shhh, shhh, Mom's just checking him out," Max said, cradling Angel. "You brought him back." She kissed her head. "I'm going to go see him. Ig, put Ange in bed."

Ig took Angel to her bed. Total yapped and jumped up beside her. "Night, Ange," Max said. Angel just hoped Fang would be okay. She had a strong feeling about something, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She didn't want to think about it now. All she wanted to do was sleep.


	11. Chapter 10

Fang's back! But he's not okay. He looked horrible. I took a peek into my mum's study. "What's up? Is Fang gonna be okay?" I asked, trying not to seem too worried. Truth was, I was so afraid of losing Fang. I hurried over to him and cradled his face in my hands. "Be okay.... please? Be okay. I need you." I leaned in and kissed him. He kissed be back.

"Ouch," he said against my lips. I pulled away.

"Sorry," I murmered, holding his hand.

"He'll be fine. He just needs to rest for two or three weeks," Mom said.

My jaw dropped. "It's not safe for us to be in the same place for such a long time. And, plus, I wouldn't want to get you hurt."

Fang looked at me. "Kiss me," he murmered. I didn't know what to do.

"I thought it hurt," I protested.

"Yes... A good pain. Don't make me sit up. Please?"

I shrugged and leaned in. He kissed my back, and his arms slowly wound around my neck. I tangled my hands into his hair.

"Ugh," Gazzy said, backpedalling out of the room. I pulled back and laughed.

"He just needs a lot of love," my mom nudged my leg with her knee. "I'm sure you and the flock can give him that. And some medicines, special pills that will make sure he doesn't get diseases or infections. He's got third degree burns, and bad scratches."

I nodded and looked back at Fang's beautiful, broken face. "Rest," I said, smiling weakly.

"Stay. I need you to stay," he said, putting his hand on my waist and pulling me towards him. I just nodded.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," I said, sitting down again.

"I'll leave you two alone," my mom said, closing the door behind her. I needed to use this time wisely, since I didn't know if Fang would survive. I just hoped and prayed he did.


	12. Chapter 11

It's been five days since Fang's returned from the hellohole. He could walk around, extend his wings a little bit. I was surprised he wasn't in more pain. He explained to us what they'd done to him, electrocuted him, and I wasn't happy. My next goal was to destroy whoever did this to him. I was sure he was going to survive, but he still wanted me sleeping in his room with him. I was getting more and more worried about my mom's safety.

"Mom? I really think you should go. It's not safe for you here," I said sitting next to Fang as my mom slowly unbandaged Fang's back and wings.

"Yes, Max, I heard you the first fifteen times," she said, smiling at me. "That's why I rented condo downtown. I'll tell you where it is, but you are _never, ever _coming to it. You can't call us, we might call you, and we'll be here during the day, but when we come, we'll take a secretive route." She put a finger to her mouth and smiled at me. I smiled back, relieved. She bandaged Fang's body up again.

We walked to the living room, where the kids were eating chocolate chip cookies, my favourite food in the whole wide world. Ella was smiling, watching Gazzy imitate her, holding Iggy's hand. She saw me walk into the room and sit down with Fang, and held up her hand to signal Gazzy to stop. "Hey, guys! I was wondering if you two would like to join Iggy and I at my prom. It's in a week, and I want you to join us. Fang would probably be healthy enough," she smiled at us, somewhat revealing Nudge's Bambi eyes. Was Nudge teaching people how to do that now? Oh, boy.

"Yeah, and, plus, if one of those black things-- Can we call them bullets? Okay, so if a Bullet Bot-- Yeah, Bullet Bot! Oooh, let's call them BBs. Okay. If BBs attack, then I can't fight him _alone. _I'd at least have to haveone person to help. Fang could, like, hide under a table or something," Iggy added, seeming a little hyper.

I looked at Fang, trying to do Nudge's Bambi eyes. Nudge snickered behind me, seeing my failing attempt. "I think it'd be great! Ooooh! I could help Max pick out a dress! That'd be so fun! Can I get a dress, too?" Nudge asked, her eyes widening with every word. "Oh, and, Max, we could get shoes! I know how much you love shoes!"

My face lit up, and my mom looked at me, smiling. "I think it's a fabulous idea! I could take Iggy and Fang to buy tuxedos." I heard Gazzy snicker behind Mom. "And Ella and Max could just walk downtown. The younger kids can go with whoever they want." Nudge, Angel, and Total raced over to where Ella and I were standing, talking about what we wanted out dresses to look like. Gazzy stayed sitting.

"Gazzy, come with us," Angel said, smiling.

Gazzy nodded aggreably. "I'd _way _rather go with you then the girls."

It didn't look like Angel was uing mind tricks. "Oookay," I said.

"_Why?_" Nudge asked.

He shrugged. Well. It doesn't really matter. Cool! We were going to a prom!


	13. Chapter 12

"When are we going prom-shopping?" Nudge asked excitedly. I sighed.

"How about tomorrow? It might take a little longer for Ell and Max," my mom said, smiling. "The night of the prom, the kids who aren't going can choose to do whatever they want. How about we watch a movie?" Total yipped in excitement, and the three younger kids wooped happily. "Well, Ella and I better go set up the condo. We'll be back in time for cooking you guys dinner."

We waved them good bye, then popped some popcorn and watched _Harry Potter, _the third one_. _I never realized, but my mum's couch could fit all of us, even when we extended out wings a little. It gave me an idea: "Hey! Why don't we sleep here tonight? We could fold out the couch. We all fit perfectly," I asked.

"Wow, Max! That's a great idea!" Nudge said excitedly. "Wait, will I have to sleep on the ground? Y'know, since I kick a lot?" I sighed and nodded sadly.

"That's okay! I'll sleep next to you!" Angel said.

Fang looked at me. "Great idea. You're so smart," he said kissing my cheek. I did find a hint of sarcasm in his words, but I ignored it and smiled at him. It was a good idea. Anything for my happy flock of mutant kids and dog!

"Yeah. But is it a fold-out?" Total asked doubtfully.

I got everyone to get up and checked. Amazingly, it was. I'd never seen a pull-out ciuch so big. And because Nudge and Angel weren't sleeping on it, we had even more space.


	14. Chapter 13

"What kind of a dress do you want, Max?" Nudge asked that night.

I shrugged. Me? In a dress? That's a sight you get to see once in a lifetime.

"Something _hot,_" Fang said. I slapped him upside the head.

"Strapless!" Nudge said. Fang did the little thing thats kind of halfway inbetween purring and growling. Yeah, the sexist pig thing. I slapped him again, but he just smiled. "See, we could find one that's high enough to cover your wings, but still look really nice and... _hot _in the front."

She started sketching, and I looked over her shoulder, but she pushed me away. Then, she showed Angel, Ella, and my mom. They all smiled and nodded. Then, she came to me, but made sure Fang wouldn't be able to see. "Oh. My. God. Nudge, that's incredible! I love it!" I said. She nodded. Then, something completely unrelated popped into my head. My chip. "Mom, do you still have my chip?" I asked.

"Uh. Yeah... Why?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Does it fit in the computer?"

"I don't know. I haven't tried..." She walked to a droor in the kitchen, and took out a small bag with my chip in it. She gave it to me, and I scurried over to the computer in her office. I popped the chip in, and files popped up. I clicked on the first one. Everyone was crowding around me.

"This is about me! Look!" Nudge pointed to the screen, where it said, _N14T159: HARRIET, MONIQUE. _I scrolled down. There was a picture of a pretty woman, smiling and holding a little baby. Nudge. I looked closer.

"Nudge, what's that?" I asked, pointing to a dark spot behind baby Nudge. She squinted at the picture, leaning closer.

"They're... wings."


	15. Chapter 14

Nudge had wings when she was a baby! We already knew we weren't test tube babies, but we didn't know we had wings at birth. Or, one of us at least. Everyone was smiling wide. We'd thought that they'd just grafted wings on our bodies when we were babies. Maybe not! I clicked on the next file.

"That's us, Angel!" Gazz said excitedly. I nodded, and read. _G92I09: Jackson, (Blank), A27I06: Jackson, Mariel._ "I... Don't have a name," Gazzy said. I sat him in my lap and hugged and kissed Gazzy.

"Max didn't have a name, either," Mom said helpfully. My expression didn't change, but I was thinking, _WHAT? Oh, God._

"My name's Ma-rile!" Angel said, trying not to sound too happy.

"It's _Mariel_," Nudge said. There was no picture of Gazzy or Angel as babies.

I went to the next file, butit was Iggy, and we already knew who his parents were, so I switched to the next. It was Fang's. _F00M00: Kearin, Jason. _

"_Foomoo?_" Nudge asked, laughing.

"What's your name, Fang?" Iggy asked.

"Jason!" I snickered. Fang glared at me like, _why couldn't you make up a name? _It's a fine name, just it so doesn't fit Fang. I scrolled down. There was a color picture of Fang as a toddler, in a diaper, at the school. There were test tubes and dog crates in the background. The flock shivered, but smiled. "Ha!" I said. He was an adorable baby.

There was one more file.

_BLANK (ID: 1411): Perry, Alexis. _"Who's Alexis?" I asked. My mum shrugged. I scrolled down to a picture of a cute little kid with bright blonde hair and blue eyes. Her wings were open, and they were grey with dark brown secondary feathers, and splatters. They looked like mine, just different colors.

"There's someone who's supposed to be part of the flock!" Nudge said. "And she's my age!" She pointed to the birth date. No body else's file had a birthday on it. I nodded slowly. There was someone who was supposed to be part of our family.


	16. Chapter 15

It was three in the morning, and Angel clambered onto the couch, inbetween Total and I. "What's the matter, lamby?" I whispered.

"I had a bad dream," Angel said, hugging me tight. I was still in shock from the information in my chip. Another member of the flock? "I know. It's pretty weird," Angel whispered, reading my mind.

"What happened in your dream?" I asked, stroking her head.

"We were all kindnapped..." She sighed, and continued. "Then we were separated. And they were real mean. They hurt us... Then I woke up."

I kissed her forehead. Minutes later, Angel was sleeping, but I was still awake. Times passed, and I eventually fell asleep, at five, but it wasn't a good sleep. My ears were ringing all night, and I couldn't concentrate on one dream for more than 30 seconds.

Soon enough, it was morning. Everyone woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. How'd my mom get in here without us waking up? We were losing our street smarts-- not good. We drifted over to the already-set table.

"Prom-shopping day!" Ella said excitedly.

"Ella... Can I talk to you?" Iggy half-smiled. But the flock knew that face. And it wasn't a good one. (And, no, he's not gonna blow Ella up.)


	17. Chapter 16

A few minutes later, Iggy walked out of Ella's room, frowning. I took Nudge and Angel over with me to check on her. She was sobbing, curled up in a ball on her bed. We saw her, and all ran over to her and hugged her in a big, girly, pep-talky hug. "What happened?" I asked Ella.

"Iggy broke up with her," Angel whispered, frowning. "I didn't hear anything about that in Ig's mind..."

Ella continued to cry into my shoulder, saying, "He broke up with me! He broke up with me!"

"Ella, you'll be fine! You don't need boys," Nudge said, rubbing her back.

"Yeah," I agreed. "You're thirteen. You don't need to be dating. Come on."

"You're dating! And you're only a year older than me! You're all mushy about Fang!" Ella sobbed. I wouldn't exactly _say mushy_.

"Yeah, but he's.. He's... He's my_ soulmate_!" I protested.

"I don't have a date for the prom!"

"We... could go with you," Angel said.

"Yeah! That'd be fun!" Nudge said.

I nodded, then frowned. "Crap. It's going to be really crowded," I said.

"That's okay. Fang was thinking of staying at the dance for half an hour, then taking you to dinner," Angel said. Great. Fang is two steps ahead of me.

Ella sat up and nodded. "'Kay. I'll go with you. Thanks. You guy are so sweet."

And we were on our way.


	18. Chapter 17

"Shoes!" I squeaed, pressing my face to the glass of the shoe store.

"Max. We need to get our dresses first, then we get shoes to match them!" Ella said, dragging m from the widow.

Even though Iggy wasn't going to prom, he still went with Fang to get a tuxedo. _Fang in a tux. _Ha! But, I bet he was thinking, _Max in a dress. _Ha! He had seen me in a dress, when I was giving a speech about global warming, but that was a plain white dress. This is going to be, like, poofy. Ella took us into the first store, where Gazzy slumped into a chair with Total, getting ready to judge our dresses. Angel and Nudge were getting dresses, too.

"Oh, I like this one!" Nudge said delightedly. She picked up a light purple, poofy, spaghetti strapped dress.

"Is it you size?" I asked.

She checked, then asked, "what size am I?" I shrugged.

"Just try it on, then."

She went into the change room. I heard her gasp, and walk out seconds later. She looked good, but it was a little big.

Gazzy made an 'eew' face. "Too big. And you need something... Green?"

Nudge nodded, then changed back into her loose T shirt and jeans. I started walking around, looking for something I could run in, but still look nice. Y'know. For Fang.

"Here's something," Angel said from behind me, making me jump. She was holding up a white and blue dress, and I have to admit it was really cute. "It is cute, isn't it? Fang would like it."

I took it, and tried it on. It fit perfectly. It was strapless, like Nudge wanted. The chest part was white, then there was a black belt on my waist, and the bottom was blue and silky. I walked out of the dressing room, and heard several gasps from strangers, and the 'shopping crew' (that's what Ella called our group).

"You look totally amazing!" Nudge squealed.

Ella Nodded excitedly. "That's perfect! You should get it!" She wiggled her eyebrows. "Fang would like it!"

Angel ran over to me and said, "you look so pretty. You're beautiful, Max," She smiled, and I kissed her cheek.

Total's eyes were wide. "Max... In... A... Dress... Actually looking good? Weird," he muttered, like I couldn't hear him.

Gazzy clapped enthusiastically. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. His smile literally went from ear to ear.

They forced me to buy it, even with my convincing argument to keep looking. Then, we went to the next store.

"I like this one," Angel said, taking a light pink dress off the rack.

I nodded. "Go try it on, sweetie." I nodded towards the dressing room.

She came out in a minute. She looke adorable. The dress fit perfectly. She looked like an... angel with it on. She read everyone's thoughts about how she looked in her dress, then frowned. "I like it, but I want to keep looking," she said, trotting back to the dressing room.

"I like this one!" Nudge said, pulling out another darkish purple, simple, spaghetti strap dress. She tried it on. It fit perfectly, flowed perfectly, and looked perfect.

"It's... perfect," Angel said, smiling brilliantly.

"I'm _so _getting it!" Nudge squealed.

"Purple, but still looks great," Total said professionally.

Gazzy nodded in agreement with Total.

Nudge bought it, and we went to the store across the street. Ella immediately found the dress she wanted. It was white, so it seemed a little like she was still trying to impress Iggy.

"No! You shouldn't get it! It's Iggy-visible," Nudge said, frowning at Ella as she picked out the dress. She put her hand out, and Ella tried to hold onto the metal hanger, but Nudge won. The hanger flew towards her hand, and luckily no one saw. I guess she was using her powers for good. Angel came to me with a cute green dress and a reef of plastic leaves.

"I like this dress, and this crown. It makes me look like a forest princess," Angel said, putting the reef on her head and smiling.

"That's adorable, lamby," I said. "You gonna try it on?"

She nodded, then disappeared into a change room. She came out, looking like a little princess.

"My God, she's grown up so fast!" Total sobbed, flopping onto my feet.

Gazzy was bowing and kissing the floor in front of Angel. He seemed to be really enthusiastic about coming shopping with all the girls. Or it was one of Angel's mind tricks.

Ella, with no warning tried on the dress and shocked us all. It was turquoise on the top, with little sparkles. The bottome was tulle, tinted yellow. There was a belt at the waste that was golden-yellow. Everyone commented positively, so we purchased the size 7 princess dress, and the size 12 prom queen dress. Then, it was shoe shopping time.


	19. Chapter 18

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes! It was a girls dream. Or, this girl's dream. I tried on every shoe my size. Total stayed away from me, afraid I was like, crazy or something.

"No high heels," I told the girls as we walked into the third store. Then, Ella pointed out the perfect pair. Converse. I bet some of you fashion freaks were screaming, "NO! Are you crazy? That totally ruins the outfit!!!" Well, too bad. This isn't Paris Hilton shopping, it's Max. And she's been on the run for ten months. I tried them on, and they fit my feet perfectly.

"Oh, I'm getting _these!" _Nudge was holding a purple flat, the other was on her foot. I nodded, untying the shoe and putting it back in the box.

"Max, look at these! Can I get 'em?" Angel asked, then tugged on my belt loop. She took my hand and dragged me over to a pair of sparkly _Wizard of Oz _shoes.

"They wouldn't match the dress," I said. I know, I know, I'm a hypocrite. "Try these." I took out the same shoe, just in silver. She shook her head.

"I want _those_," she said.

"How 'bout these, Ange?" I took out a yellow flat, with a little green bow.

"They're cute... but I want _these_," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, pointing at the glittery red shoe. It was classic that young kids just got stuff that they liked, then just throw it together and not care how they looked. But this was _prom_, and I was even a little excited about it. Just a little.

"Angel. You can't run in these," I said, frowning.

"You can't run in _those _either," Angel said, looking over to the shoe I suggested.

"Max, look at this," Nudge said, coming up behind us with _my _phone in her hand. Great, so now we had an excellent pickpocket in our flock. She handed me the phone, where she had opened up a webpage. I read it. (I can't write the website here...But, if you want to look at it, look up 'Gore errors' on Google, and look at the one that has Global Warming Science and Public Policy')

"This is just bogus," I protested, immediatley texting Fang the website.

"It's not. It shows the truth, and information to back it up," Nudge said. Meanwhile, I noticed Angel had taken twenty bucks out of my back pocket, and now she was at the cash register, paying for her new prom shoes.

"Angel? No. What did we talk about?" I hissed, getting irritated.

"Yeah, I know, it was bad, but I have an idea!" She said, smiling innocently. I raised an eyebrow at her. "I'll get these, _and _the yellow flats."

Hey, there was no other way. So, I let her wear the ruby slippers around the store, while Ella chose her prom shoes, and Gazzy got some new sneakers.

"Ready?" I asked, taking Angel's hand. Gazzy nodded excitedly, holding looking down at his new skatebording shoes. Now, we had to get our hair cut. Fang's hair was growing over his eyes again, and it was getting light streaks from flying in the sun. But, now because he couldn't fly, they'd partly gone away. The day of the prom, we were going to get our hair styled, but today was shopping and haircuts.

As we walked out the door, the alarms went off. _Wee-woo, wee-woo. _Oh, crap.


	20. Chapter 19

I grabbed Angel's hand and started walking towards the emergency exit. "Max, it's nothing. They're not after us," Angel said, slipping her hand our of mine. "You need to chill out! You're so tense!"

"Angel, what if it _was _something?" I asked, grinding my teeth.

"Hello, _mind reader_ here!" Angel said. I nodded and took more shoes to the counter. I love shoe shopping, but I was so happy it was over. We payed for the rest of the shoes and went home. The boys waited patiently, not really looking forward to getting their hair cut.

"Oh my god, all that shopping has exhausted me!" I moaned, flopping onto the couch beside Gazzy and Fang.

"You were gone for four hours... who are you and what have you done with the real Max?" Fang said, shaking my shoulders. I just smiled at him and collapsed onto his lap. "So, are we gonna get our hair cut or what?" he exclaimed, a _hint _of excitement in his voice.

I sat up and asked, "who are you and what have you done with the real Fang? Since when did you like haircuts?"

"Since I couldn't see your eyes, two weeks ago. Let's get a move on, people!" He hopped up and put on his sneakers. The rest of the flock followed.

"Can I get my hair dyed? I think it'd be really pretty with, like, hot pink streaks!" Nudge declared.

"And can I get green streaks? It'd go with my dress. Because there's--" Angel started to say, but I slapped my hand over her mouth.

"Dresses are surprises! Not a word from anyone. You, too, Gazzy!" I disclosed. "Let's go, the hair place is just around the corner. Race you there!" Obviously Ella was going to be last, because we're just so strong and fast we could outrun an Olympic athlete.

Then, of course, the unexpected just _had _to happen.


	21. Chapter 20

Angel, who was currently in the lead, fell forward, like she was pushed. By who? I could see the whole flock. The next moment she was rolling around on the floor, attacking something invisible. It was obviously strong, and it was obviously trying to kill us. Okay, so now I knew it was from the School or some institute totally into the idea of a dead mutant. I shot up into the air. Fang was already involved in the fight, ripping the thing off Angel and throwing it to the ground. I had a good target, unless the creature moved. I dove down, feet first, wings tucked in. I was dropping like a rock. I could break my ankles if I don't land right. As I got closer to the creature, it must've seen me, and it jumped and grabbed my legs, throwing me against the side of the house. It's made of rock, so I was out cold for at least 20 minutes.

When I woke up, the fight was still on. I heard Gazzy shout "DUCK!!!"

When Gazzy screams duck, you duck as fast as you can. The thing exploded, and it wasn't pretty. Green and gooey blood splattered every flock member. It smelled like blue cheese and rotten eggs.

"Woo hoo!" Iggy shouted. HE gave Gazzy a high-five. Not bad, I guess.

"Report!" I shouted.

"I'm fine," Iggy said. "Just a few bruises and scrapes."

"Same," Gazzy and Angel said together.

"Dislocated shoulder," Nudge moaned, popping it back into place. We were use to this.

"Scrapes... broken nose, and I think I got shot," Fang said, lifting up his shirt to see the damage. He wasn't shot, I don't know what happened, all I know is that it was a lot worse then a shot.


	22. Chapter 21

"Uhm, eew!" Nudge squealed, hiding behind Iggy. We took Fang inside, where Ella was hiding under the table. She crawled out and started sobbing.

"What happened? Fang, are you okay?" she asked.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Seriously, guys, I'll be okay," he said, sitting up on the couch. "I'll just clean it and put a bandage over it."  
"No no no, Fang you're still kinda weak from… last time. It could get worse. Let mom check it out, okay?" I told him, pushing him gently onto the couch again. Ella ran to the office to get her mom, while I lifted Fang's shirt to check out the damage. The wound was strange, like a piece of shrapnel had skidded of his stomach. It was deep, too, and was in the shape of the letters RXV.

"Initials?" Angel guessed.

My mom hurried out of her office and kneeled on the couch beside Fang. "I… I don't know what it is, but it's already infected, and looks around an inch deep. Let's clean it and bandage it up. You're staying home for now."

"No haircut?" Nudge asked, disappointed.

"You six can go, just Fang's staying here. I need to check this out a little more," mom said, taking him into her office.

"All right guys, let Fang rest. We have to get our hair cut," I said, leaving again, this time more cautious of what was outside.


End file.
